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The passionate crowds are one of the best calling cards for Tenby's race. Credit Credit Andrew Testa for The New York Times

Tenby, Wales, has quickly become a favorite stop on the global Ironman circuit. But the race has also changed the local population, which now claims to have more triathletes per capita than anywhere else on earth.

The passionate crowds are one of the best calling cards for Tenby's race. Credit Credit Andrew Testa for The New York Times

TENBY, Wales - Ricky Hicks and Gary Evans scanned the list, searching for their names. Hicks spotted his first: No. 647. It took Evans awhile longer. No surprise, really: Evans is a much more common surname in Wales. He had to pick through 27 to find his number. But still, it might have been worse: There were 55 athletes called Jones.

Hicks and Evans then walked toward the registration tent, where they would collect their race licenses and official numbers, and seal their fate. It was Friday, bright and warm. Evans was relaxed, confident. Hicks flickered with nervous energy, toying with a water bottle, shifting his weight from foot to foot, wondering if the weather would hold. Rain or shine, their Sunday was going to be hell.

It was all Evans's fault. Last year, Hicks had made the short journey to Tenby from his home in St. Clears - 10 minutes or so inland - to watch his friend compete in the Wales edition of the global Ironman series. He had seen Evans complete a 2.4-mile sea swim, a 112-mile cycle leg and a full 26.2-mile marathon in a little more than 12 hours.

What had struck Hicks, though, was the power of the crowd. Tens of thousands had thronged the streets of Tenby to watch the race. The noise, the fervor and the enthusiasm had captured his imagination. When he congratulated Evans on finishing, he told him he "would love to do something like that."

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It is that sort of place now, Tenby: a town where, sooner or later, there is a very good chance you will end up doing an Ironman, whether you want to or not.

Thirty-six hours before the race, good-luck messages have been scrawled into the sand of North Beach, a perfect swath of gold overlooked by pastel-colored houses. In the center of town, hundreds of competitors wander past the ice cream parlors and old-fashioned candy stores.

They are easily picked out: The vast majority carry an Ironman backpack, bright red, slung over a shoulder. Those who have completed a race often have a tattoo to showcase that fact: There are Ironman logos, a dotted capital M, drawn on arms and shoulders and countless calves, part badge of honor, part watermark. The visitors dawdle over coffee in the early September sunshine, gaze out at the waters of Carmarthen Bay and earnestly compare training injuries and equipment reviews.

The Five Arches gate in Tenby, built in the 13th century as part of the town's city wall. Credit Andrew Testa for The New York Times

Competitors compared notes before the race at the Vista Cafe. Credit Andrew Testa for The New York Times

Not everyone was thrilled to see the race arrive. Tenby is a tourist haven, and its population of 5,000 swells tenfold in the summer months. Some here were content with the business it had traditionally attracted.

The town, though, has taken the event to its heart. "It is a bit of a pain for the locals," said Mike Neil, 42, who had come from the Rhondda Valley - in the heart of Wales's old mining country - to compete. "All the roads for miles have to be closed for the day, but they really embrace it."

Tenby is a relatively young Ironman. The event started in Hawaii in 1978, and by the time Wales was awarded its race, there were 26 others scattered around the globe. Next year, there will be 42 full Ironman events worldwide, each of them offering the chance to qualify for the world championships in Hawaii.

The Tenby race already has a reputation. "This is one of the hardest on the calendar," said Mirka Vahtera, who had traveled from Finland with her brother, Mikko Tepponen, to take part. Most say that the event on Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands - "where you run up a volcano," according to Vahtera - is the toughest there is, but the rolling hills of the cycle section, the crosswinds and the unpredictable sea make Pembrokeshire a close second.

What makes Tenby - and Pembrokeshire as a whole - truly remarkable, though, is not just how much the locals want to support it, but by how many want to take part. The town is fond of claiming that thanks to Ironman, it now has more triathletes per capita than anywhere else in the world.

"We think we have the largest percentage of local participation," Andrew Davies, the town clerk, said. "It is certainly not six degrees of separation: Most people would know four or five people who have done it at least once."

Davies is not one of them. "I would still be doing the swimming now," he said, a couple of days after the 17-hour time limit to complete the course had elapsed. But then this is Tenby: Iron Town. It is probably better to say that Davies is not one of them yet.

The story of Britain's seaside resorts, over the last half-century, is one of inexorable decline.

The statistics, across much of the country, are grim reading. Blackpool, on the Irish Sea, now has the highest rate of deaths from heroin and morphine in Britain; five more coastal towns are in the top 10.

In 2013, a government study decreed Skegness, a resort on the North Sea coast, the most deprived in England. It was followed by Blackpool, Clacton, Hastings and Ramsgate: all resorts left behind by the rise of cheap air travel and a waning fishing industry.

Clacton, in Essex, is the only place in Britain to have had a member of Parliament from the far-right United Kingdom Independence Party. When that party's on-again, off-again leader, Nigel Farage, mounted his most recent failed campaign to be elected, he stood in the coastal town Thanet, in Kent, another place ranked among the most deprived in the country.

Tenby, though, avoided the worst of it, its popularity sustained by the beauty of this part of Wales: all hidden coves, sheer cliffs and golden sand. Barafundle Bay, 30 minutes down the coast, is regularly voted one of the world's best beaches, up there with Ipanema and Varadero. It remains a peaceful, neat sort of a place, attracting families, bus trips filled with retirees and increasingly - as Mark Sansum, 38, a regular visitor from Swansea, the nearest big city, put it - "stags and hens."

Those bachelor and bachelorette parties, though, were not entirely welcome. The town center was made a "controlled drinking zone" in 2014. The police have been running a campaign to crack down on unruly behavior for several years, in part because of the lewdness and crudeness of the memorabilia being taken onto trains by groups celebrating one last night of freedom.

As the Ironman race has grown in popularity, that identity has started to shift.

"We still get a lot of families," Davies, the town clerk, said. "But we see more and more people coming for fitness tourism." Sansum, who visited regularly to train for his second attempt at the Ironman, was more blunt: The event, he said, "saved the town."

It is not just race weekend that brings people here. While he was training, Hicks - the 23-year-old embarking, a little unwittingly, on his first Ironman - said the "roads were full of people all the time." Martin Jones, 54, said there were hundreds of cyclists, swimmers and runners when he came for his final training session.

Gareth Rees, a founder of the Tenby Aces cycling and triathlon club, said his group had mushroomed to some 170 members since the launch of the Ironman, many of them drawn from all over Britain. "People come to train and want to ride or run or swim with us," he said.

That effect has been noted across the region. "This event has been a huge catalyst for the popularity of multisport events," said Peter Munn, a member of the Pembrokeshire cycling club, based in Haverfordwest, the area's largest town. His group has doubled in size in recent years, to 175 members: The youngest is 8 and the oldest 77.

Tenby, meanwhile, has become a different sort of place. It holds another multisport event during the year, as well as several smaller competitions. Iron Kids, a juniors event that runs on Ironman weekend, welcomed 1,000 entrants last year. That total doubled this year, such was the demand. Davies said the council had noted an increase in the number of people using its leisure facilities in recent years, and he said there had been a concomitant decrease in demands placed on its health services.

The impact, though, may be broader still. In Swansea, Sansum said, there are "four or five" triathlon clubs within a few miles' drive. In the Valleys, meanwhile, Wales's industrial heartland, the sport - and Ironman in particular - is booming.

"You hear stories of five lads from the same village of just a few houses who are here to do it," said Ben Jones, who had come with Neil Williams from Rhondda to compete.

Williams added: "There is a real fascination with it. It is a challenge. A chance to see what you're made of."

Success can come at a price. Ironman organizers say they are committed to staying in Tenby until 2021, at which point the group's contract expires. There are rumors Ironman may look to take the event to a larger market: There are dark whispers among locals that they may move the race to Cardiff, the capital.

Davies, at the town council, insisted he was hopeful the race would remain here, its continued place on the calendar secured by the positive reviews from the athletes and the clear passion of the crowds. "We think we had 25,000 on the streets of Tenby during the day itself, and record numbers at all of the major towns along the way," he said.

Many here believe its magic would evaporate if it was moved. "There is something on every weekend in Cardiff," Evans said. "It would become just another thing to go to. It would lose everything. Here, it's the main event of the year."

It is a symbiotic relationship, as it should be. The place has a transformative effect on the event, infusing it with a sense of occasion, a passion. The event, in turn, has a transformative effect on the place, turning Tenby from a pleasant seaside resort into a world-renowned destination for some of the world's toughest athletes, the sort of place where you can end up doing an Ironman, even if you do not really want to.

Thirteen hours 15 minutes 45 seconds after he started, Ricky Hicks, No. 647, crossed the line and became one of them. He survived. He is now, at last, an Ironman: yet another Ironman, in a town full of them.

Rory Smith is the chief soccer correspondent, based in Manchester, England. He covers all aspects of European soccer and has reported from three World Cups, the Olympics, and numerous European tournaments. @RorySmith

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page D2 of the New York edition with the headline: A World Triathlon Capital, Population 5,000. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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Tenby, Wales, has quickly become a favorite stop on the global Ironman circuit. But the race has also changed the local population, which now claims to have more triathletes per capita than anywhere else on earth. The passionate crowds are one of the best calling cards for Tenby's race.

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If you walked around Monaco, you could reasonably assume that a lot of the people you walked by were millionaires. In the City of London, you could rightly guess that most of them worked in finance.

In Tenby, assume they are athletes.

That's the extraordinary impact of Ironman Wales, still a relatively young triathlon event which has quickly become one of the most iconic, toughest and best-known endurance races on the globe.

It's not an exaggeration. Walk into a shop or a cafe and there's a good chance the owner has completed it (or tried to). The same goes for the firemen in the local station.

Sports clubs have added "triathlon sections" to their clubs and seen their membership numbers soar. And while 10 years ago, you might have driven in and out of Tenby without passing a cyclist, now they're everywhere.

In fact, people around here are fond of saying there are now more triathletes per capita in this part of Wales than anywhere else in the world.

It's a phenomenal change in a town which a decade ago was known more for stag and hen parties. There's still a lot of lycra, but now it's tri suits rather than mankinis.

Ironman Wales is now in its seventh year. Starting at the town's North Beach, it takes in a mammoth 2.4-mile swim and a 112-mile ride before being rounded off by a full marathon. It's every bit as brutal as it sounds and, for many, completing it within the alloted 17 hours is the only aim.

Ironman races take place all over the world, from the hills of Italy's Emilia Romagna to the sparkling beaches of Brazil and Hawaii. Ironman Wales takes in the stunning Pembrokeshire coast. But the main reason for its popularity is this: it really is one of the hardest on the planet.

It also has the highest levels of local participation and is renowned for its feverish local support on race day.

"I knew the town before the Ironman came in and I think it has had a massive impact on local people insofar that we have the highest proportion of Ironman competitors per population anywhere in the world," says 49-year-old Victoria Randall, who runs Equinox, a souvenir shop that has been a staple of the Tenby high street for 40 years. She completed the event in 2013, having volunteered there before that.

"Most people that I know have some connection - completing it or being a volunteer. If I went to town on a night out I would definitely not be the only one. I think people are more conscious about being fit - although I wouldn't say everybody wants to do it. It isn't for everybody - you have to be pretty stupid to want to do it!

"But it certainly raises awareness amongst middle-aged people that they can go out and do things. A lot of people are more active than they would have been before, even if that is just a spin class. There are more people cycling than when we moved here 20 years ago from Cardiff.

"The town has a real buzz on the day but people come here year round to train. There is no getting away from the fact that the event is dominated by men but I think once they come here they realise Tenby is a great place to take the family."

In the days leading up to the event, there are people getting ready all over Tenby. As the sun sets over the harbour, North Beach is filling up with athletes doing their final preparation swims. There's a local athletics club on the beach and standing by the beachside shower washing the salt from his wetsuit is Felipe Manente.

"This is my second time in Tenby," says the 28-year-old Brazilian with a thick South American accent and nervous smile. In 2015, he finished eighth in the pro category. He left Brazil three weeks ago and arrived in Tenby a week later to prepare, via a race in Dublin.

"I like this race because it is a hard race. It is the very hardest. I bring my bike with me on the plane and I stay at a friend's home while I'm here."

Next to Felipe are veterinary student Sarah Jones, who's 22, and Tom Hill, her boyfriend and training partner.

"This is my first one and it's a hard one! It is my home event so I can't wait," says Sarah.

"I was brought up in Carmarthen and I have been coming for years. I have got the buzz for it and the atmosphere is incredible. Tenby had to be my first one. I've got quite a few friends who will come across to watch - the sport has taken over!"

All along the beach there are people in tri suits, alone and in pairs, putting in the last minute miles as dog walkers watch on. At the bottom of stairs leading down to the beach are around 25 members of one of Tenby's largest sports clubs (and there are a lot those).

The Tenby Aces are preparing for their swim practice. They will be swimming out into Carmarthen Bay, covering much of the route the aspiring Ironmen will be covering on the weekend.

After training Gareth Rees, a founder member of the club, looks like he could probably do it all over again.

"It was Tenby Aces Cycling Club to start with and after the first year of Ironman we made the decision to add a triathlon section rather than change to full triathlon club," says the 48-year-old.

"It made sense with it right on our doorstep. We have 170 members - that's probably doubled since we added a triathlon section."

This is Gareth's sixth Ironman. The other day, a jellyfish swum straight into his face.

"My face was painful for about seven or eight hours and it was tingling 32 hours later. All those things they tell you get rid of it - none of them work!"

One Ironman Wales is enough for many people. But for married couple Nicola and Charlton Coates, it is addictive. Charlton has done every one.

"Once you've done Wales everything seems a little bit less," says 54-year-old gardener Charlton. They've taken part to raise money for causes like the cancer unit at Haverfordwest and the Wales Air Ambulance. Nicola has represented Great Britain at long distance triathlon.

Few reasons for taking part are more moving than those of 65-year-old David Hill. At an age when most people are settling into a relaxing retirement, he has learnt to swim and will be taking on the full Ironman this year.

"I had been running a business with my brother for 35 years and sadly he got Alzheimer's after retiring," he says.

"I thought to myself I can either sit around and do nothing or I can try and do something which is as brutal as it must have been for him to be told. He was a tremendous athlete and I thought we would have probably have done this together.

"I couldn't swim before this - just breaststroke. The first thing to do was to go and see a doctor and check out that I was okay to do this. Then I went and got lessons. Then I join the club and started swimming at 6.30am. The beginning was awful, and I mean seriously awful. Swimming 25m left me gasping like a frog."

After swimming lessons and plenty of running and cycling work, he's ready to go and will be running for the Alzheimer's Society. When he told his brother about his plans there were tears in both their eyes. You can donate to David at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/david-hill51 .

At the other end of the spectrum from David is Ryan Semper, nearly 50 years younger and just about to start his first year of A-levels: "My brother started doing it and I jumped in and did the odd cycling session. I have really taken to it and I really want to go pro. Getting up to that standard intrigues me. I train every single day and I have one day off."

How it all began

Just over a decade ago barely anyone in Tenby knew what an Ironman was. Now the town is hooked. Father-of-four Matthew Evans, 44, is one of the men responsible. A local boy, he runs Activity Wales Events alongside his business partner Scott Powell. He also runs the Long Course Weekend, another hugely challenging event that also happens every year with the athletes completing the same distances as Ironman, but over a weekend, rather than a day.

Having raced Ironman events since the early 2000s, he saw enough around the world to believe Tenby could deliver. One conversation led to another and within a year they were running the first race. But it wasn't as easy as it sounds.

"There was a lot of planning to get the town to sign up to the idea. It was a massive culture change for Tenby and Pembrokeshire, there were 74 miles of roads to close and people weren't used to that," he says.

"This is a tourism town and they were scared. We spent nearly every single night of that summer in schools, pubs and church halls just explaining what the concept was and saying 'Give us a year, let it run and you will understand'.

"We are local and have to live here - we had to get it right. There was huge push-back initially. You felt like Shrek - everywhere you go people were chasing you with pitchforks."

But, by the morning of the first race, the town had come round to the idea: "Tenby stepped up. We walked down at 2am and hotels had their lights on and were serving breakfast - it was bang on. They just adjusted straight away and that made the athletes' experience good. A lot of athletes went home and said that Tenby got it right."

Like many seaside towns, business in Tenby is seasonal. In summer, the population swells as people flock to the 2.5 miles of sandy beaches, quaint streets and medieval town walls. Businesses need to do well to still be open come next June. Ironman Wales helps this in two ways. Firstly, it's one last surge of custom before the long nights without customers set in.

But it has also helped in a less quantifiable, but perhaps far more useful, way. Ironman (and Long Course Weekend) have changed how Tenby is perceived by tourists. No longer so much a place for men and women to spend their "last nights of freedom", it is instead a place to get fit, get active and get outdoors. The beautiful Pembrokeshire Coast Path is there all year round and a new attitude brings a new kind of tourist to Tenby who are not just there for the summer season.

"We don't see as much of the stag and hen dos - there has definitely been a decline in recent years," says Matthew Ronowitz, who runs the Qube restaurant and The Cove bar in the town as well as an outside catering company. His daughter was born on the same day as his first big catering booking: serving 2,000 portions of fish and chips during Ironman Wales.

"The type of people that Ironman brings, if we were to stereotype them, tend to be middle-aged successful people who have already got an established career and have some time to kill. It has most definitely changed the clientele for the better."

That said, stag and hen parties still exist to the extent that as recently as this summer police felt the need to launch an initiative cracking down on the "lewd" costumes, games and accessories being taken by train to Tenby.

"The reason we began to expand on the events is down to the original Ironman. It was the catalyst for us expanding. We had a restaurant and did the occasional hog roast and now it's grown to catering lorries and trailers and 200 events a year," he says.

On Tenby's charming Upper Frog Street, you'll find James Beavan and Rob Faulkner. The friends quit the rat race managing in corporate pubs and did what every man and his best friend have drunkenly dreamed of doing: opening their own brewery.

Tenby Brewing Company is now in the process of upgrading their facilities and have opened their own craft brewery bar, Sandbar. Ironman is an enormous draw.

"It has a massively positive impact on takings and the reputation of the town," says James.

"It draws attention to us on the map and it's amazing to have an international audience come to Tenby to take this on. I know people who have just come for the Ironman and have been bringing their families every summer afterwards."

Next to the Sandbar is Indie Burger, that's been run by Josh Bevan and his cousin for just over a year, where the athletes can gorge on burgers after the race, having been so disciplined for so long.

And next along is The Fuchsia Cafe, owned by 30-year-old Laura Shorten.

"It was because of the Ironman that loads of other sporting events have sprung up around the town. We seem to have a lot more fit people around - lots of cyclists. The buzz is fantastic."

While some businesses see a boost during Ironman, others can attribute their very existence to it.

Rhys Jordan was working in social care when Ironman and Long Course Weekend allowed him to start a business based around his passion. The 28-year-old from Pembroke runs two cafes, one in the leisure centre and the other in the town centre called Feel Good Inc. They are targeted at cyclists, triathletes and runners and even provide advice and seminars.

Rhys says: "I have built the business off the back of Ironman and Long Course Weekend. I suppose it has become a bit of a go-to point for all things triathlon. I would say there isn't a day goes by when we don't have an Ironman finisher or swimmer or cyclist coming in - I would say 60% of people are involved in health and fitness in some way."

Rhys says there are still people who resent the upheaval of Ironman weekend but they are a minority and far outweighed by the "money, opportunities and healthy lifestyle it's created in Pembrokeshire".

Sitting in the cafe is 37-year-old Oliver Simon. Local boy Oliver (Olly to his friends) holds the current Welsh record for an Ironman, having started competing in triathlons in 1998.

"There were (triathlon) magazines then but they weren't very mainstream so you had to learn by trial and error. It wasn't really a known sport and you couldn't watch it on TV. Now there are so many clubs," says Olly, who's good enough to draw sponsorship for what he does. He loves his hometown Ironman but it comes with its pressures.

"On Ironman Wales day there is pressure because people don't realise the standard and talent of people coming to that one event. You have pros coming from France who are world-class and they are not going to (the world championships in) Hawaii so they come and compete in Wales.

"If I do a race round here I will usually win it but obviously there is a different standard of athletes for an Ironman race."

No one is better placed than Olly to see how the Ironman has transformed the area. For him, the differences are obvious.

"When I started doing triathlon I was one of a handful of people who would be out on the road cycling and running. People wouldn't be on their bikes unless it was to get to work. I can't go out for a cycle now and have the roads to myself. Bank holiday weekend it's not the motorists that are the problem, it's the cyclists. People will come from Swansea and Cardiff just to do the Ironman Wales route.

"It's not just people training for Ironman, it's people getting active and running smaller events like 10Ks. These are now selling out and it is down to events like Ironman. Lycra on men used to be a no-no but now there are plenty of boys in the gym wearing tights!"

Yes, there are professionals. But the spirit of Ironman is embodied in a different way by local fireman Nicky Rees. A former rugby player, he has completed every single Tenby Ironman.

One of Nicky's friends, Gareth Scotcher, wanted to take part in a race himself but can't - he has motor neurone disease. Nicky didn't want Gareth to miss out and hatched a plan for them to do Long Course Weekend together. Nicky towed Gareth in an inflatable kayak for the whole of the swim.

They got him a bike where he would be able to pedal a bit as well and, for the marathon element, Nicky pushed Gareth for 26 miles in a specially designed chair.

"It was difficult to train because I didn't want to hassle Gareth too much so I got one of our dummies to practice with and sometimes used my wife as well!" he says.

"We finished the marathon in the square in just under five hours."

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If you walked around Monaco, you could reasonably assume that a lot of the people you walked by were millionaires. In the City of London, you could rightly guess that most of them worked in finance. In Tenby, assume they are athletes.

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The volunteers were the astonishing success of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Even hardened voluntary sector professionals like me, who for the past seven years have been talking up the opportunities the London 2012 Games could bring to the volunteering world, were blown away. The question now is what happens next.

Is it realistic to expect a lasting legacy to be achieved, especially given the cutbacks being forced on many of the key institutions that make volunteering happen in our communities? Of course, we can't replicate the excitement and grandeur of the Games, but we can take some of the learning and apply the principles to involving volunteers in our projects.

Three key lessons stand out. First, leadership. From Seb Coe to Boris Johnson, volunteering has been championed from the top. This is not just post-event rhetoric, though we have seen some of that, but the careful positioning of volunteers at the centre of the Games. Volunteers - the Games Makers and London Ambassadors (note the careful terminology) - were not seen as an optional extra, a luxury to be welcomed but not a requirement, but rather as essential to the delivery of the project itself.

Second, recognition. Seldom, if ever, can volunteers have received such acclaim. Local groups cannot put on victory parades for their volunteers or Prime Ministerial receptions, but they can design inspiring roles with good training and support and put on a thank you party. They can show their volunteers that they are what has made the difference between doing a job and being brilliant.

Which brings us to the third and most challenging lesson - the thorny issue of investment. Whilst politicians might like to think that volunteering just happens, the truth is more prosaic. Volunteering requires investment and support to make it work. LOCOG and the Mayor's Office have been planning their programmes for years; indeed, planning for the volunteers at London 2012 began in 2004. They have invested millions of their own money and of corporate sponsors' resources in these programmes. This is not to reduce volunteering to a financial transaction. There is something very special about the volunteering relationship that can't be bought and sold. But the hard truth is that volunteering has to be underpinned and supported by substantial investment if it is to flourish and survive. Investment in communications and recruitment, and training and management; investment in programme design, and in reward and recognition. Above all, investment in the creation of new and exciting opportunities which capture the imagination and sense of what's possible for potential volunteers.

And yet at precisely the time when volunteering has never had a higher profile, and the prospects for its expansion have never been greater, we find the organisations that make it work struggling to survive. A recent survey of our members found that half of the 280 Volunteer Centres in England have seen their funding cut this year by an average of 25%, on top of a 12% cut last year. Volunteer Centres, which are already swamped by inquiries and increasingly called upon by work programme providers, and other government agencies, will be needed when the flush from the Games has evaporated and the hard slog of recruiting and retaining volunteers for local projects carries on again in earnest. Meanwhile, from national charities we receive reports that the posts of volunteer managers are being lost as their organisations' funding is cut.

Volunteers are great value for money. One study suggested that for every pound invested an organisation could expect a return of £7-£8. The question is who is going to invest the pound. Without that investment the dream of a lasting legacy from the Games will remain just that.

Justin Davis Smith is Chief Executive of Volunteering England.
(Update: Volunteering England merged with NCVO on the 1st January 2013)

This entry was posted in Policy and tagged Volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

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The volunteers were the astonishing success of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Even hardened voluntary sector professionals like me, who for the past seven years have been talking up the opportunities the London 2012 Games could bring to the volunteering world, were blown away. The question now is what happens next.

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res.mdpi post event volunteering legacy - Google Search

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Recommendations on major sport events, in particular on legacy aspects with a focus on ... built that could not be operated profitably after the event, while their upkeep was a ..... the public, clubs, schools, etc. in volunteer and sport programmes. ... UN Resolution A/ RES/69/6 "Sport as means to promote education, health,.

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The volunteering spirit seen during the London 2012 Olympic Games is in danger of "fizzling out", a group of MPs has warned.

The Public Accounts Committee said the Cabinet Office needed to show it was not "missing the boat" in securing a long lasting legacy for volunteering.

It also criticised the lack of tickets made available to the public for some of the major Olympic events.

Ministers said they were committed to ensuring "a tangible, lasting legacy".

In its post-Games review, the cross-party committee said the 70,000 "Games Makers", who volunteered across the Olympic venues, "made a huge contribution to the success of the Games".

But the MPs were not convinced "that as much as possible is being done to build a lasting volunteering legacy".

'No clear plan'

Committee chairman Margaret Hodge said: "The volunteers at the Games did a fantastic job. We need to capitalise on that success but there is a danger of the volunteering legacy fizzling out.

"The Cabinet Office must demonstrate that it is not missing the boat, so that there is a lasting volunteering legacy both within sport and beyond."

They said they had been told there would be programmes to build on the volunteering spirit, but found there was "no clear plan for capitalising on the contribution Games Makers can make to other volunteering initiatives".

The committee also criticised the ticketing system used for the London Olympics, which saw the public unable to buy a large proportion of tickets for major events.

Only 51% of tickets for the men's 100m final were available to the British public and only 47% of tickets for the track cycling, the MPs said.

"International sports bodies and media organisations wield a lot of power and it cannot be easy for individual event organisers to push back at their demands," the report says.

"But, learning from the experience of the London Games, the government, possibly alongside other governments and event organisers, should challenge demands for large numbers of accredited seats."

And the committee raised concerns that the National Lottery would not see the £2bn it put towards the cost of the Olympic Park repaid.

It was agreed that the lottery would be repaid from future returns from developments at the Olympic Park, but the committee said current projections suggest the first payment will not be until the mid-2020s.

Mrs Hodge added: "Lottery good causes lost money during the period running up to the Games.

'Rapacious developer'

"They need to be assured that they will get some of this back from the financial returns secured from the development of the Olympic Park."

Overall, the MPs found the success of London 2012 demonstrated it was possible for government departments to work together and with other bodies effectively to deliver complex programmes.

But they stressed the government must build on this success in delivering other major projects.

A Department for Culture, Media and Sport spokesman said: "The government is committed to delivering a tangible, lasting legacy from the Games and work is well under way on this.

"We have been crystal clear that the lottery has an entitlement to receive £675m from land sales from the Olympic Park, that is bound by a legal agreement between the government and Mayor of London."

London Legacy Development Corporation chief executive Dennis Hone said: "We are looking at what would be the best solution, not just for the area of the Olympic Park, but also for the wider regeneration of the East End.

"While there is a drive to maximise receipts and get the taxpayers' money back, no-one would want us to act as some kind of rapacious developer at the risk of jeopardising the long-term legacy of the Park.

"It is a balance and we have to work that through over the coming months."

For Labour, shadow sports minister Clive Efford warned the government against "throwing away" the "the extraordinary contribution of the volunteer Games Makers".

"Building on their energy and enthusiasm we could create the capacity in our communities and schools to get sport and other activities going at the grass roots," he added.

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The volunteering spirit seen during the London 2012 Olympic Games is in danger of "fizzling out", a group of MPs has warned. The Public Accounts Committee said the Cabinet Office needed to show it was not "missing the boat" in securing a long lasting legacy for volunteering.

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A longitudinal study of the volunteers who volunteered at the Rugby World Cup (2011) sought to explore the relationships between motivations, expectations, and experiences of RWC 2011 volunteers and the extent to which the RWC 2011 Volunteer Programme provides a legacy of increased participation in volunteering and sport, and improved employability, workplace-learning orientation and workplace-learning outcomes.

"Although seven out of 10 Rugby World Cup volunteers were already active volunteers, one out of 10 were new to volunteering and the rest were people who had done some volunteer work in the past," says Dr Karen Smith, Research Director. "About 85 percent of the Rugby World Cup volunteers [of more than 5,500 total volunteers] who said they planned to do more volunteering did in fact go on to do just that and it was the events and sports sectors that benefited from this growth."

The benefits of volunteering for the Rugby World Cup were numerous, including that the commitment was for a specific time period and that they were involved in an international event of importance to many. A quarter of the volunteers rated their satisfaction with the experience as 7/7, while a fifth said they didn't experience any low points.

The study didn't find that volunteering at the Rugby World Cup translated into better workplace innovation, learning orientation or self-perceived employability by volunteers, but the researchers are confident that there were other workplace benefits, unstudied at this time.

Find the news article here.

Find the full report here.

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Rugby World Cup Generates Legacy for Volunteering - Community Research

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A longitudinal study of the volunteers who volunteered at the Rugby World Cup (2011) sought to explore the relationships between motivations, expectations, and experiences of RWC 2011 volunteers and the extent to which the RWC 2011 Volunteer Programme provides a legacy of increased participation in volunteering and sport, and improved employability, workplace-learning orientation and workplace-learning outcomes.